NewsWrap
for the week ending October 16, 2004
(As broadcast on This Way Out program #864, distributed 10-18-04)
[Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Rex Wockner, and
Greg Gordon]
Reported this week by Rick Watts and Cindy Friedman
Italy's anti-gay nominee to the European Commission could create a
constitutional crisis for the European Union. This week Rocco Buttiglione, who's
slated for a five-year term as the EU's Justice Commissioner beginning November
1st, became the first EC nominee ever to be rejected by a committee of the
European Parliament. The EP Justice and Civil Liberties Committee first voted
27-to-26 to find him unsuitable for the justice portfolio, and then voted 28-to-25
to find him unsuitable for any role on the European Commission.
The EC is the executive branch of the European Union and is composed of one
appointee from each member nation. The European Parliament can only confirm or
reject the entire 25-member slate, not individual commission appointees. But
left-wing leaders believe they can amass the Parliamentary votes to take that
unprecedented drastic action if necessary to keep Buttiglione out of the
Justice post. Incoming Commission President Josť Manuel Barroso has so far
vigorously defended Buttiglione but he's being backed into a corner by this threat
of a constitutional crisis. It seems most likely that Barroso will at least
have to slate Buttiglione for a different Commission role if not force him to
stand down from his nomination altogether. But if Buttiglione somehow wins
through to serving as Justice Commissioner, he'll have to face on a regular basis
the same Parliamentary committee that rejected him.
Buttiglione, currently Italy's Minister for European Affairs, is also a
philosophy professor and a close friend of the Pope who has often written in
defense of positions of the Roman Catholic Church. When serving as a Member of
the EP himself, he introduced an amendment to remove sexual orientation as a
category protected from discrimination under the EU's Charter of Fundamental
Rights. Appearing before the civil liberties committee last week, he admitted
that he views homosexuality as a sin, although he claimed that as a Commissioner
he would defend the rights of gays and lesbians "on the same basis as all
other European citizens." This week he told reporters that he views many people
as sinners, including himself. Buttiglione had also indicated to the committee
that the institution of marriage was for women to have children, apparently
rejecting marriage equality for same-gender couples.
Buttiglione and his defenders assert that the European Parliament's
opposition is based on bias against both the Catholic Church and the Italian Government
that nominated him. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and many other Italians
are outraged at the perceived insult.
Italy is also the source of a study published this week that suggests not
only a genetic contribution to male homosexuality but a theory for its
evolutionary success. University of Padua researcher Andrea Camperio led a team that
found gay men are more likely than non-gay men to have gay male relatives on
the maternal side, indicating as other studies have that there may be a genetic
factor on the X chromosome. But they also found that gay men's mothers,
sisters and maternal aunts have significantly more children than those relations
of non-gay men. They theorize that the same genetic factor that contributes to
male homosexuality also contributes to female fertility. That's a factor
natural selection would favor even though gay men themselves might be expected to
father fewer children.
The Italian study became public on the day of the U.S. Presidential debate
in which the nominees -- both of whom oppose marriage equality -- were asked
if they believed homosexuality is a choice. Republican President George W.
Bush admitted he just didn't know. Democratic challenger Senator John Kerry
referred to Vice President Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter Mary as an example of
how sexual orientation is not a choice. His choice of example sparked outrage
from both the Cheney family and the White House. That contrasted with Dick
Cheney's simple thanks in the earlier Vice Presidential debate when his
Democratic challenger Senator John Edwards referred to the Cheneys' love for their
lesbian daughter.
The official tally of Australia's national elections won't be known for
some weeks to come but it's not too soon for some gay and lesbian activists to
fear the worst. It appears that Prime Minister John Howard's Liberal-National
Coalition Government has not only convincingly renewed its control of the lower
House for a fourth term, but also gained control of the Senate as well. No
Government has controlled both houses since 1980. Some fear that this could
allow the Coalition not only to continue its customary blocking of legislative
advances towards gay and lesbian equality, but to begin actively rolling them
back.
The fear finds some foundation in the sudden emergence in this election of
the Family First party as a national power. Although that party tries to
distinguish itself from the U.S. religious right, all of its leadership are
significantly involved with the Assemblies of God Pentecostal movement, particularly
the Paradise Church. If the Coalition does not gain an outright majority in
the Senate, it looks to be Family First that will hold the balance of power with
the vote to give the Government the edge.
Australia uses a complicated system that includes consideration of voters'
preferences in rank-ordering multiple candidates and political parties'
agreements to swap those preference points in close races. Even before any vote had
been cast, Family First was building political power through preference deals
with other parties, primarily with the Coalition. The Prime Minister
personally negotiated with them. The largest Opposition party -- the Australian
Labor Party -- and even the left-wing Australian Democrats sought preference deals
with Family First. These deals make Family First much stronger than
suggested by the votes actually cast for it, apparently less than 2% nationwide.
One Liberal Party candidate Family First refused to support was open lesbian
Ingrid Tall, a challenger for a Parliamentary seat from Brisbane. She's
convinced that the spotlight their refusal threw on her sexual orientation killed
what had been seen as a strong chance for her to win.
Family First also hit the headlines when one of its volunteers answered
affirmatively when asked if the party believed that lesbians should be "burned to
death" -- although the party did act to discipline that volunteer.
Also out of West Australia, it's still in doubt as to whether openly gay De
mocrat Brian Greig will return to the national Senate, where he's been a
powerful voice for gay and lesbian equality.
Overall, in addition to the Coalition trouncing its main competitor the
Australian Labor Party, the gay-supportive Australian Democrats appear all but
wiped out. The gay-supportive Greens seem to have made gains despite being
demonized by Family First, but those gains appear to be smaller than had been
predicted.
Britain's House of Commons this week debated the Government's Civil
Partnerships Bill on its second reading and approved it in principle by a 9-to-1
margin. The bill to create registered partnerships for same-gender couples with
many of the legal benefits of marriage will now be dealt with in detail in a
Parliamentary committee.
In the course of the floor debate, the Government announced that it will move
to ensure that surviving registered partners will have standing equal to
married spouses for collecting public service pension benefits after one partner
dies. This marked a policy shift spurred by pressure both from within the
ranks of the ruling Labour Party and from their allies the Liberal Democrats. The
Government promised to act on the pensions as well as other tax-related
issues in the first Finance Bill to arise once partnerships have been created.
Previously the House of Lords had added what were considered "wrecking"
amendments to the Partnerships Bill, extending its provisions to other
cohabitants including blood relatives and live-in caregivers. Those amendments were not
discussed on the Commons floor but Government spokespeople made clear they
will be removed. The bill cannot be enacted without the Lords' approval.
One of British gay and lesbian activists' longest-running campaigns has
finally been won: Sandals Resorts is opening its 13 Caribbean hotels to gay and
lesbian couples. Shortly before a corporate spokesperson was scheduled to
defend Sandals' 20-year-old policy against serving same-gender couples on BBC
Radio this week, a Sandals lobbyist distributed a statement that the company had
"recently lifted the ban". A Sandals spokesperson told reporters that the
policy change had actually been implemented in August, although apparently no
effort had been made to make it public. What Sandals did was make what it labeled
a strategic decision to drop the word "heterosexual" from its advertising,
while maintaining its goal of creating vacations for those couples. The use of
the term had become a legal as a well as a social issue in a growing number of
places, particularly within the European Union. As a service provider,
Sandals was not subject to Britain's relatively new anti-discrimination law, but
Mayor Ken Livingstone had joined activists in working to remove Sandals ads from
London's public transportation.
And finally... PlanetOut Inc. this week became the first gay-identified
corporation in the U.S. to make an initial public offering of stock. San
Francisco-based Web site PlanetOut -- which carries "This Way Out" -- offered
4.6-million shares on the Nasdaq, hoping to raise 39 million dollars. In fact the
company raised almost 42 million as the shares gained 16% from their $9 opening
to close at $10.40. Just how identified is PlanetOut with the
lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender community? For its ticker symbol, it chose LGBT.